‘India’s best era coming, connect with all sections’: PM Narendra Modi tells BJP workers, sounds bugle for 2024 Lok Sabha elections
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked BJP members to reach out to every section of society, including minorities such as Bohras, Pasmandas and Sikhs, and work for them without electoral considerations, during his address at the BJP national executive on Tuesday. In his address, which concluded with his remarks, PM Modi noted that nearly 400 days are left for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and asked party members to serve every section with full dedication in a speech described by several participants as his big vision to expand the saffron organisation and lead the country in every aspect.
Various party members who were part of the audience said the Prime Minister spoke highly of ‘sufism’ and also asked them to meet professionals from different walks of life and visit places like universities and churches to connect with them. The Prime Minister said India’s best era is coming and the party should dedicate itself to the country’s development and turn “amrit kaal”, the 25-year period to 2047, into “kartavya kaal” (era of duties).
Sources said he also cautioned the party against any sense of “overconfidence” and cited the example of the BJP’s loss in Madhya Pradesh in 1998 despite the unpopularity of then Congress government led by Digvijaya Singh. Modi was then a key minder of the BJP’s organisational affairs in the state.
‘Refrain from controversies’
Amid controversy over Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s upcoming film “Pathaan”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also asked his party workers to refrain from making unnecessary remarks on irrelevant issues such as movies. Some party leaders often take a critical stance on movies for “hurting” people’s feelings, with Shah Rukh Khan’s “Pathaan” being the latest example.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told reporters that PM Modi, in his address to the BJP national executive meet, emphasised on reaching out to all sections of society and said his speech was not of a political leader but of a statesman underlining that kept the nation above the party.
‘BJP no longer merely a political movement’
The BJP is no longer merely a political movement but a social movement as well that is working to transform socioeconomic conditions,” PM Modi told the executive, he said. The Prime Minister said people in 18-25 age group have not witnessed the political history of India and are not aware of “corruption and wrongdoings” that took place under previous governments. “So, they need to be made aware. Let them know about the good governance of the BJP,” he said in an apparent swipe at the previous dispensations at the Centre.
